mulceo

• mulcō (post-classical)
• mulciō (post-classical, Vulgar Latin)

From Proto-Italic *molk-eje- (“to rub, stroke”), *molk-ā-, from Proto-Indo-European *m(o)lḱ-eie- (“to touch repeatedly”), see also Sanskrit मृक्षति (mṛkṣati, “to stroke, smear, rub”).^[1]

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈmul.ke.oː/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈmul.t͡ʃe.o/,

mulceō (present infinitive mulcēre, perfect active mulsī, supine mulsum or mulctum); second conjugation (poetic, in Late Latin prose)

1. to stroke, graze, touch lightly or gently
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 8.630–634:

     Fēcerat et viridī fētam Māvortis in antrō
     prōcubuisse lupam, geminōs huic ūbera circum
     lūdere pendentīs puerōs et lambere mātrem
     impavidōs, illam teretī cervīce reflexā
     mulcēre alternōs et corpora fingere linguā.

     He also made the she-wolf, daughter of Mars, in a green cave
     to have laid down, around her teats twin
     boys to play hanging and to lick the mother
     fearless, her to, with shapely neck bent back,
     stroke them by turn and shape their bodies with the tongue.

   • 8 CE, Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.107–108:

     Vēr erat aeternum, placidīque tepentibus aurīs
     mulcēbant zephyrī nātōs sine sēmine flōrēs.

     The spring was everlasting, and, with warm breezes, the pleasant
     zephyrs touched the flowers born without seeds.

   1. (medicine) to rub, apply an ointment
      • 2th c. CE, Quintus Serenus Sammonicus, Liber Medicīnālis 280–281:

        At sī cervīcēs dūrātaque cōla rigēbunt,
        (mīra loquor) geminus mulcēbitur unguine poples.

        But if the nape and the hardened neck shall be stiff,
        (wondrous things I'm saying) the twin knee shall be rubbed with ointment.

2. (very rare) to gently move something
   • 239 BCE – 169 BCE, Ennius, Annales 257:

     mulserat hūc nāvem compulsam flūctibŭs pontus

     The sea had gently moved the ship stricken by waves hither.

3. to soften, relax
   • 348 CE – c. 410 CE, Prudentius, Psȳchomachia 330–331:

     […] et male dulcis odor domat ōra et pectora et arma
     ferrātōsque torōs oblīsō rōbore mulcet.

     and the fatally sweet smell subdues the mouths and chests and weapons
     and the iron-clad muscles with crushing strength softens.

4. to make sweet or pleasant
   • 5th c. CE, Rutilius Namatianus, Dē reditū suō 113–114:

     Vēre tuō numquam mulcērī dēsinit annus;
          dēliciāsque tuās victa tuētur hiemps.
     During your [Rome's] spring never does the year cease to be made pleasant;
          and the conquered winter respects your charms.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

5. (figuratively) to soothe, soften, appease, placate
   • c. 37 BCE – 30 BCE, Virgil, Georgics 4.507–510:

     Septem illum tōtōs perhibent ex ordine mēnsīs
     rūpe sub āeriā dēsertī ad Strȳmonis undam
     flēvisse, et gelidīs haec ēvolvisse sub antrīs
     mulcentem tigrīs et agentem carmine quercūs:

     Seven whole months they say of him ,
     under the tall crag, beside the wave of the deserted Strymon
     to have wept, and to have said this under the icy caves,
     softening tigers and moving oaks with song:

   • c. 65 CE, Seneca the Younger, Epistulae morales ad Lucilium 7.63.3:

     Nōn differō in longius tempus, quō dēsīderium omne mulcētur, quō etiam ācerrimī lūctūs residunt.

     I'm not putting off to any more distant time when every regret shall be soothed, when even the most intense griefs shall quieten.

   • c. 83 CE – 96 CE, Silius Italicus, Pūnica 17.46–47:

     Extemplō maior cūnctīs spēs pectora mulcet
     fīnem armīs tandem fīnemque venīre periclīs.

     A greater hope immediately soothes the breasts of all
     that an end to weapons and an end to dangers may indeed come.

   1. (medicine) to help, alleviate
      • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 5.499–504:

        Ingemuit Chīrōn trāxitque ē corpore ferrum:
             adgemit Alcīdēs Haemoniusque puer.
        Ipse tamen lēctās Pagasaeīs collibus herbās
             temperat et variā volnera mulcet ope:
        vīrus edāx superābat opem, penitusque recepta
             ossibus et tōtō corpore pestis erat.

        Chiron groaned and drew the iron out of the body:
             Alcides and the Haemonian boy groans back.
        He himself herbs gathered from the Pagasaean hills
             gathers and helps the wounds with diverse aid:
        the greedy poison was overcoming the help, and received within
             to the bones and the entire body was the pestilence.

      • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 22.50.107:

        Prīma propolis alvōrum, dē quā dīximus, acūleōs et omnia īnfīxa corporī extrahit, tūbera discutit, dūra concoquit, dolōrēs nervōrum mulcet ulceraque iam dēspērantia cicatrīcem clūdit.

        First, propolis of the hives, of which we've talked about, extracts bee stings and anything embedded in the body, reduces swellings, softens calluses, alleviates pains of the nerves and closes ulcers already hopeless with a scar.

6. to delight
   • c. 35 CE – 100 CE, Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 9.2.4:

     Quae cum adesse dēbent, tum disponenda atque varianda sunt, ut audītōrem, quod in fidibus fierī vidēmus, omnī sonō mulceant.

     Which, while they need to be present, also are to be arranged and varied, so as to delight the hearer with all the musicality, as we see with the lyre.

• (soothe): blandior, lēniō, plācō, sēdō
• (stroke): palpō, percurrō

• Italian: molcere
• Spanish: mulcer

• mulcō

• “mulceo”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “mulceo”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• mulceo in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “mulceo” in volume 8, column 1561, line 66 in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present